Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) was money for military commanders to use for conducting rebuilding and reconstruction during the

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Wars.

The program

It was initially money seized during the

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, but later was also U.S. Federally appropriated funds. The military must use the money for the benefit of the Iraqi or Afghan people, such as public roads, schools and medical clinics or humanitarian aid. The funds for CERP came from the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

. The use of funds in the field can be authorized by military commanders at the brigade level. The rules governing the use of such funds will be based on any Congressional restrictions in the legislation, and will be tailored to the needs of the particular operation. For the United States military, the use of money through CERP was considered an effective

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

weapon. By January 2011, the United States Military spent $2 billion on 16,000 projects in Afghanistan over 6 years using CERP to assist the people. The projects ranged in size from renovating schools, building wells to much larger public works and infrastructure reconstruction.Huvane, Dan
"High school reopens in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province"
Gosport section (volume 70, number 14) published by the ''

Pensacola News Journal The '' Pensacola News Journal'' is a daily morning newspaper serving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. It is Northwest Florida's most widely read daily. The ''News Journal'' is owned by Gannett, a national media holding company tha ...

'', Pensacola, Florida, April 7, 2006, page 10.

References

{{reflist Civil affairs of the United States military Counterinsurgency Humanitarian aid Military economics Iraq War War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) United States foreign aid United States military policies